Human Resource Management Assignment

Affirmative Action, Reverse Discrimination and Multiethnic Dynamics.

Affirmative action is the policy in placement of affirmative action, through which historical and systemic discrimination is addressed by ensuring the availability of equal opportunities for underrepresented groups in their endeavor to access learning, education, employment in public contracting firms. Negative discrimination has served a critical role in increasing access for minorities and women into institutions that have been dominated by white masculine types since they emerged in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement (Khiara, 2011). The policy has, though, triggered endless debates especially concerning issues of fairness, meritocracy with most critics labeling the rise of what they label reverse discrimination.

In reverse discrimination we see scenarios of affirmative action perceived as a drawback to people from historically advantaged groups-these are mostly white males in favor of underrepresented minorities (Platt, 2018). Opposition by law and politics to affirmative action usually is based on this idea. Remarkably, there were the Supreme Court cases Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) and Students for Fair Admissions against. Harvard (2023) drew national interest to whether race conscious admissions violated the Equal Protection Clause. Although some laud affirmative action for nurturing diversity and making right wrongs, others complain that affirmative action only generates new forms of inequality and does not tackle the problems of inequality at their source, for example, economic inequality or lack of access to education at K—12 (Arcidiacono, Kinsler, & Ransom, 2022).

The increasing numbers of the multiracial and multiethnic citizens makes this debate more complex. Pew research center (2021) shows that multiracial groups are some of the fastest growing demographic groups in the United States thus questions are being raised about the identity categorization and rights to affirmative action. Standardized structures of traditional affirmative action tend to operate based on rigid racial compartments, thereby placing people of fluid or interlocked racial ethnic identities at a disadvantage. For instance, a person who identifies themselves as both Black and Asian should also suffer from ambiguity with institutions’ perception of one’s racial background upon seeking admission into diversity- based opportunities (Morning & Sabbagh, 2005).

Furthermore, multiracial men and women may encounter previously undefined varieties of discrimination that are spread across customary boundaries of disproportionate racial inequality. Research finds that they are frequently under pressure to “select” a primary identity, and tend to be perceived as non-authentic members of any racial category (Shih & Sanchez, 2005). Therefore affirmative action policies will have to develop to address the complexity of identity in a diversifying society more effectively.

In a nutshell , affirmative action is still a controversial yet important tool used for the pursuit of social equity. Critique of reverse discrimination points towards the need for adequate policy designs that would incline towards comprising fairness and historical redressness. With the increasing demographics of multiracial and multicultural society, the institutional approach has to consider how identity is constituted and quantified in policy regimes. Informative affirmative actions in the 21st century will call not only for remedying the scars of the past injustice but will also have to be responsive to the changed demographic reality of a more diverse and complicated society.

References

Arcidiacono, P., Kinsler, J., & Ransom, T. (2022). Affirmative action and the quality–fit trade-off. Journal of Economic Literature, 60(3), 678–725.

Khiara, M. B. (2011). Racial justice and equity in the 21st century. Harvard Law Review, 124(2), 1–40.

Morning, A., & Sabbagh, D. (2005). From sword to plowshare: Using race for discrimination and antidiscrimination in the United States. International Social Science Journal, 57(183), 57–73.

Pew Research Center. (2021). The rise of multiracial Americans. https://www.pewresearch.org

Platt, T. (2018). Reverse discrimination: A misguided critique of affirmative action. Social Justice Review, 48(2), 101–115.

Shih, M., & Sanchez, D. T. (2005). Perspectives and research on the positive and negative implications of having multiple racial identities. Psychological Bulletin, 131(4), 569–591.